Heavy Hitter: Mitchell Stapleton’s LSXcalade Goes 9’s

A few months ago we ran into Mitchell Stapleton in Oklahoma City at a Street Car Takeover event. Mitchell is the owner of the LSXcalade, which is a full-sized four-wheel-drive Escalade. With a new engine combination, the LSXcalade was able to run low 10’s. Anything in the 10-second zone is an impressive feat considering the vehicle’s race weight is over 6,000-pounds. However, the 10-second barrier was not what Mitchell was looking for; he wanted to go 9’s. Unfortunately this feat did not happen during the Oklahoma event, but we were sure he had the engine combination to get it done eventually.

The heart of the LSXcalade starts with a Dart block 427 engine and a Dart billet crank. Other go-fast goodies include a set of CP Carrillo rods and pistons, Frankenstein Engine Dynamics heads, twin Precision 76/75 turbos. A Rossler Terminator 5 4l80e transmission was used with a Pro Torque Converter was used to get the power to all four of the Weld bead lock wheels. The axles are still stock in the massive beast with a 3.42 gear set.

On his second pass on August 2 at Street Car Takeover in Bowling Green, Mitchell and the LSXcalade were able to run in the 9-second zone pulling off a 9.81 at 139.75 mph. The teal monster managed a 60-foot time 1.50 and a 1/8-mile time of 6.322. According to Mitchell, this pass was achieved while sping the turbos to 15-pounds of boost.

While Mitchell does want to turn up the boost on the Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), he is afraid that the 4L80e transmission is at max capacity. Mitchell plans on yanking out the current trans and replacing it with a bulletproof TH400 in hopes it will survive the daunting task of going 9’s consistently.

Once Mitchell gets the LSXcalade transmission issues dialed in it will be interesting to see what this hefty beast is capable of on high boost. We can’t wait to see it go deep in the 9-second zone.